So what’s missing? I know that when I was the Divisions Night Shift Network Administrator, I tried to do most of these. Hey, when you’re in the Army, it’s a little hard to control pay, okay? But I did try to keep the majors and colonels (and sometimes generals) off my staff’s back so they could work. Most of the time my staff was smarter than I was at fixing specific network issues, so I delegate the responsibility of repair, rather than laying out a list of tasks for them to accomplish. As a final example I encouraged my staff to go for the various professional certifications. Those certifications would help with promotion points and if the person decided to leave the Army, he/she would be that much more marketable.

Good bosses (and thus leaders) are hard to come by. We all have experiences both good and bad. So what experiences do you have? Is there anything missing from the list?